The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Kerry suffer first defeat of the season at home to Mayo
IGOT a lot of books for Christmas. One of my favourite pastimes is sitting down to enjoy a good autobiography, preferably that of anyone with a sporting background. The only problem is finding the time to read them.
Being the father of three boys all under the age of four doesn’t exactly leave you with a lot of quiet alone time, but you when I get the chance I try to get through a few chapters here and there.
One of those books that landed in my stocking this year was
Win or Learn by John Kavanagh, the coach of Conor McGregor. I wouldn’t say I am a huge fan of McGregor or, indeed, MMA as a sport, but it was a fascinating insight into the mind of trainer.
It was interesting to see some of the similarities between what he goes through on a daily basis when preparing his athletes and what an inter-county football manager goes through in his sport. One thing that popped up quite a bit was being ruthless.
Now MMA and Gaelic Football are vastly different when compared as two forms of combat or battles but they do have this in common. When you are on top and your opponent has nowhere to hide you bury them because if you don’t they still believe they have a chance.
If Saturday evening’s game was an MMA contest then Mayo should have been tapping out after 20 minutes. Kerry though left them off the hook big time. It was a dominant performance from the home team and it looked from very early on that there would be only one winner.
The goal chances came and went, however, and with each one missed you started to think that we might live to regret them and, like so often in the past, that’s the way things transpired.
Eamonn Fitzmaurice must have been extremely pleased with his side’s attitude and work rate throughout but the two negatives that cost us defeat in the end were our inability to be clinical in front of goal and more disciplined in our defending.
On a positive note we are creating chances and it is great to see. After a return of 2-17 last weekend it looked like we were in the mood up front again albeit with no James O’Donoghue and losing Paul Geaney to an early injury.
What was very impressive for me was our direct running from deep to support of inside line. How often did we see Jack Barry, who was excellent all night again, Jonathan Lyne and Peter Crowley drive through the middle third and take well timed slipped passes from our forwards?
Mayo could not deal with it and it looked to me like a tactic Kerry are really working on at training. Eamonn has introduced younger more mobile guys around the middle and it certainly paid off in the first half. The only problem was we didn’t get the return we should have.
Jack Barry took two points and fair play to him, but the goal was on both times. Adrian Spillane, who can be quite satisfied with his debut, rattled the crossbar. It was a fantastic effort, but again the goal was on.
Barry John Keane, who did eventually end up hitting the net after a suspect piece of goalkeeping from David Clarke and poor marking by Keith Higgins, also had a palmed effort sail over the bar when again it had goal written all over it.
Throw in a penalty miss and it makes for frustrating reading. With a little bit more composure and ruthlessness we could realistically have had four or five goals chalked up before the 20 minute mark. Game over.
When you don’t kill off a team like Mayo then there is always the chance that they can haul themselves back into a game which they had no right to be in. I’m sure Stephen Rochford sat his players down at the break and had no problem with his words of advice.
Kerry had dominated them for the majority of the half yet still only led by four. Mayo were still hanging in there and in fairness to them they turned it around to grab the win and give them a real boost heading into the break.
They most certainly upped their intensity and work rate all over the field but they were definitely helped by Kerry coughing up frees and with Cillian O’Connor around then you pay the price.
O’Connor ended up with nine points from placed balls and this is something that Kerry will have to look at when they review the analysis. This just allowed Mayo to chip away at the lead and Kerry just couldn’t seem to get back up to the heights they showed in the first half which again was disappointing.
They had put a massive effort into the first 35 minutes and even though they introduced fresh legs it looked like Mayo had more energy and legs especially going down the stretch.
It was a tough defeat as full points from the opening two games would have been a good start to the campaign but it is early doors.
And there are certainly loads of positives for Kerry to take from both games. Once again our younger players showed that they can compete with some of the best players in the country and with every minute of experience they get they will improve.
Again I thought some of the forward movement was superb and the Mayo full-back line had their work cut out to keep tabs with the likes of Jack Savage and Conor Keane. They may not have got the scores but they were always an option inside and when it wasn’t on for them they looked to offload to a runner.
I don’t know how the Kerry training sessions work but this must entail Maurice Fitzgerald and Liam Hassett doing movement drills with the our forwards.
If they can keep the level of performance that they showed in the first half up over a longer period then it could make for exciting times ahead. Kerry will learn from this loss.
You either win or learn.